Chinese ancient mathematician Zu Chongzhi,who calculated the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, pi, to seven decimal places, more than 1,500 years ago, has been regarded as a model for modern Chinese youngsters.

A new book, featuring 100 ancient Chinese scientists, has been published recently, aiming to encourage Chinese youth to learn from the creativity and spirit of ancient Chinese scientists who contributed to the great inventions and scientific progress in history.

The ancient mathematician Zu arrived at the precise value for pi of between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927, and determined the upper and lower limits of pi for the first time.

Zu achieved the result by inscribing from 6-sided, 12-sided, 24-sided to 24,576-sided regular polygons inside a circle with much patience, and then calculating the length of their sides and their areas, said the book.

Compared with Zu's spirit of being scrupulous about every detail and keeping on improving in his academic pursuit, many Chinese scientific research people today were found falsifying their study result.

The Chinese created a brilliant civilization in the ancient times. The inventions of the compass, gunpowder, paper-making and printing have made great contributions to human progress.

However, China's science and technology lagged behind the world in the recent several hundred years because of the long-time feudalism.

"Some people doubted whether the Chinese have creativity," said Wang Qianjin, editor in chief of the book, adding that "reading the stories of the ancient Chinese scientists, we could find that the Chinese has spirit of creation from generation to generation."

"We have traditional Chinese medicine, as well as our special systems of mathematics, agriculture and geography which are different from those of the Western world," said Wang, who is also deputy director of the Institute of History of Natural Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In addition, porcelain and silk were all invented by the Chinese, Wang said.

"From the ancient Chinese scientists, we can learn their spirit of having no blind faith in authority, strong social responsibility, attaching importance to experiment and research, and braveness in expedition.

Xu Guanhua, minister of science and technology, said recently that China has made remarkable progress in sci-tech development, highlighted by atom bombs, man-made satellites and manned spaceships since the founding of New China in 1949.

However, some serious morality problems still exist in the scientific circle, said Xu.

Some research people hanker after fame, and are eager for quick success and instant benefit. Some of them are unwilling to cooperate with each other and tend to look down upon others, Xu said.

Chen Ying, head of the China National Association for Ethical Studies, said the stories of the ancient scientists tell the youth a secret of success that all the great scientists have virtuous characters.

It's their lofty ideals, wisdom and spirit of creation that made them become great scientists, Chen added.

Source: Xinhua